The present invention relates to a seat control device for a vehicle, particularly to a seat control device in which a distance between a first seat and a second seat expands automatically when ingress intention of a passenger who is supposed to sit on the second seat exists.
Conventionally, many types of auto vehicles equipped with two rows of seats disposed in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle are known, in which a first-row ingress and egress opening is disposed at a side of a first-row seat and a second-row ingress and egress opening is disposed at a side of a second-row seat. Generally, in van-type and wagon-type of auto vehicles equipped with three rows of seats disposed in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the first-row ingress and egress opening and the second-row ingress and egress opening are provided, but a third-row ingress and egress opening is not provided at a side of a third-row seat. Accordingly, passengers who are supposed to sit on the third-row seat get on and off through the second-row ingress and egress opening.
In these auto vehicles, when the passenger has access to the third-row seat, reclining the second-row seat forward or sliding the second-row seat forward to expand the distance between the second-row seat and the third-row seat can provide a state in which the passenger can have access to the third-row seat easily. Herein, technology in which seats are moved back and forth electrically (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 8-156658) is known. Further, there exists a vehicle in which a sliding door sliding back and forth is applied to the door to open or close the second-row ingress and egress opening. Herein, technology in which the sliding door is moved back and forth electrically (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-160933) is known.
Herein, in auto vehicles equipped with three rows of seats disposed in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, such as van-type and wagon-type vehicles, if the second-row seat is located at a place where it is used normally, it is difficult to have access to the third-row seat through the second-row opening because of an existence of the second-row seat. Therefore, when the passenger has access to the third-row seat through the second-row ingress and egress opening, it is necessary that the passenger or somebody reclines the seat back of the second-row seat forward or slides the second-row seat forward to expand the distance between the second-row seat and the third-row seat. Namely, having access to the third-row seat takes a long time, thereby deteriorating accessibility to the third-row seat and excellent operation.
Electric driving of a longitudinal movement of the second-row seat can decrease effort to move the second-row seat back and forth. However, because this should be done by operating switches additionally, it also needs time for having access to the third-row seat. Accordingly, this also has limited accessibility to the third-row seat and limited operation. Further, even if electric driving of the sliding door back and forth could be applied, some additional operations to expand the distance between the second-row seat and the third-row seat would be necessary in order to make access to the third-row seat easy. Accordingly, it would not easy to resolve the above problem.